While a survey shows that the skills crisis in Australia is second only to that facing Botswana, the Howard Government scraps an incentive program that encourages women to take up trades apprenticeships.
As the Beaconsfield survivors try to squeeze every last penny out of the chequebook journalists, their colleagues have been meeting with union representatives to talk about improving safety standards before they go back underground. Following the meeting, Bill Shorten reported: It [the AWU] could not identify a single underground miner who had received occupational health [...]
After two weeks trapped underground, Tasmanian miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell walked out of the Beaconsfield mine early on Tuesday morning. In surprisingly good health after their ordeal — especially now that we know Todd was initially pinned down by the rock fall — the two men insisted on having a wash in a [...]
When news broke that the SDA had defeated a juice bar’s attempt to slash the pay of a 16-year-old girl and her colleagues, I was concerned that it was a phyrric victory: because she was a casual, the company would just stop offering her shifts. Sadly, that prediction has been confirmed by Amber’s father in [...]
More good news! The smirk workers — sacked for standing up to attacks on their pay and conditions — have been reinstated as a result of media coverage and community activism. When the Union Solidarity group heard about the case, they organised a community picket at the Finlay Engineering site. Over 300 people turned up [...]
This week’s Labour Day celebrations in Brisbane were a resounding success. 35 000 people filled the oval at the RNA Showgrounds. The crowd was three times bigger than last year’s, and is attributed to significant union membership growth. Last week the Courier Mail reported that “Queensland workers worried about their security under new workplace laws are [...]
It’s fucking cold and cramped in here. Get us out. What a fantastic comment to wake up to on May Day! It was made by one of the Beaconsfield miners when the rescue team broke through to them last night. Huddled in a tiny cage, Todd Russell and Brant Webb survived the massive rockfall that [...]
